


Stranded on the Sealand

by AriesOnMars



Series: How to Train Your Berserker [1]
Category: Dragons: Riders of Berk (Cartoon)
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mentions of Death, Mentions of Violence, Post Season 2, Pre-Slash, Slow Build
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-07
Updated: 2014-06-08
Packaged: 2018-01-23 21:07:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 19,351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1579577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AriesOnMars/pseuds/AriesOnMars
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A storm leaves Hiccup stuck on a strange island he's never seen before with the worst person he could imagine being trapped there with: Dagur the Deranged.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The first thing Hiccup was aware of was that he was wet, and he swore to himself that if it was one of the twins' jokes he was going to make them scrub out the academy after 3 every day for as long as they lived. The second thing he was aware of was that there was way too much water for it to be a prank. Then the rest started coming back to him and he started fighting against the foggy feeling in his brain that was probably buddies with the awful pain throbbing in there as well. He tried to push himself up but there wasn't much to brace against the smooth, wet surface under him and Hiccup slipped off of it entirely, dunking down into ice cold water. His eyes were open now, but it didn't make much of a difference, the water made everything blur and he almost shoved away at the dark shape that came after him as he flailed to get back to the surface. As soon as the darkness lifted him up through the surface of the air, though, Hiccup was clinging to it like it was his lifeline as he coughed out saltwater.

 

"Thanks, bud..." he finally managed between gasps of air, and Toothless made a low affectionate growl under him that was probably supposed to be comforting. There wasn't a lot comforting, though, the water was ice cold, and Hiccup didn't know how long he had been in it, but it had probably been far too long. He needed to get warm, and they both needed to get out of the ocean, and he moved carefully and still groggy to the saddle on the swimming dragon's back. Toothless wasn't a bad swimmer, not exactly, and even a Stoker class like Hookfang could swim, but he really wasn't built for it. The metal and leather harness on him that was adding way more weight definitely wasn't helping either. At least even in the water Hiccup felt better on the saddle, and he went to put his foot in the pedal.

 

And he nearly fell off and into the water again.

 

Hiccup was more confused than anything else, but as soon as he was looking down the problem was obvious. At some point, either during the storm or when they fell into the water or when Toothless was carrying him and swimming, the metal and wooden foot had been lost. He might have been able to salvage the situation--well, of course he could. Maybe. He had to, definitely. But he couldn't do it in the water the way he was. Hiccup looked around, and if asked he'd just say he was trying to get his bearings, but there was some dumb sliver of hope he'd see his foot somewhere, even if he knew the weight of the metal would have dragged what little wood there was on it down into the ocean. Either Toothless knew what the problem was, or he was just trying to get land under him again, but he was headed right toward the closest island Hiccup could see in the sea around them.

 

It was a small island, although not the smallest he'd seen in the archipelago. It was short, almost stumpy, a few hills in a row down the center of it, but no mountains at all. There wasn't really a beach at all, which was weird, the plant life seemed to go down all the way to the edge of the water and a little beyond it, like the seaweed had just decided to come up and see what it was like on dry land. Larger plant life on the island towards inland was bigger, thicker, but bent weirdly, like all of the plants had been shoved over and crushed recently. Which wasn't that weird considering the storm he had been in that got him to this point, but the rest of the island was still weird. He didn't remember seeing one like that before, although it might have looked different if the trees were still standing upright instead of doubled over.

 

Hiccup shifted and looked back over his shoulder, and patted Toothless' neck when he seemed to be trying to look back at him.

 

"It's alright, Toothless. I'm just trying to see where the storm's gone," and he liked to think Toothless understood him when he said things like that, but it was probably just that Hiccup didn't sound scared when he talked. The Night Fury looked back to their destination and kept swimming along, wings working slowly under the water like he was flying in slow motion. The storm had been coming up from the south, so it was probably heading north still, maybe northeast, which would be better because then it would be clipping Berk instead of going right over it. He hadn't meant to be out this long, but Bucket and Mulch came back as soon as the bad weather had been turning worse with news that they had seen a small boat as they were coming in. It was too far for them to reasonably help and get back in time but on a dragon there might be a chance, especially on the fastest dragon on Berk, even if it was just to take the person on Toothless and leave the boat and whatever it contained behind. Hiccup had seen the boat but he hadn't been able to make it before Toothless was swept up into the storm, and his shield had jerked up from where it was strapped to his back and cracked into the back of his head. Which explained why he was out of it in the water and why he had a splitting headache and... Hiccup winced and reached up to rub over his face with a wet hand. And why he didn't have his shield now, it was probably like his foot, off sinking to the bottom of the sea. Although he was going to hold out some small hope for it since it was wood plated with Gronkle iron instead of regular iron, maybe the lighter metal would let the thing float.

 

"Please, Odin? Let it float? Or Thor? Tyr? Freya? Loki...? Any god who likes me," Hiccup was willing to think that right now there was _no_ god that liked him, but since they were heading to an island instead of being stranded out in the middle of the ocean that probably wasn't true. Some god liked him, he just wasn't sure which one, or why.


	2. Chapter 2

When Toothless finally reached the land things were... less cold. Not easier, but Hiccup was out of the water now, which was a little better. Hiccup still had to stay on Toothless' back, and put most of his weight to the side on the one foot he had left so he wouldn't start slipping on the wet saddle. He'd rather be down and walking, and Toothless kept stopping now and then and crouching down on a dryer-than-normal looking part of the island like he was waiting for Hiccup to get off. It was awkward and embarrassing being stuck on his dragon like this, but it'd just be worse if Hiccup tried to get down off of him. Without his foot the scrawny viking couldn't walk, not without some kind of a crutch, and even if he did have a crutch Toothless kept slipping on the slick grass as he went so Hiccup would probably be falling over every three steps, even with both of his feet.

 

Walking around on the island raised more questions than answers. Toothless was going slow because of the constant slipping and slowly picking his path carefully, so Hiccup could watch the ground and around them, but it just kept getting weirder. The grass was all big, flat, and wet, and it squelched under Toothless' feet like it was full of water or still soaked. It might just be the storm that passed over it but it seemed more and more like Hiccup's first impression, that the seaweed just crawled up onto dry land, was the truth. They were going around the edge of the island, far enough away that when Toothless slipped they weren't falling back into the water down the slight slope of the sandless beach, but not in towards all the bent and dripping trees. Hiccup didn't really want to deal with whatever animal life might be living there and riled up after the storm. On one end of the island--because it seemed to be a sort of oval--was a peninsula that dipped down in to the water after a few feet. Hiccup could still see the land just under the water, with the seaweed floating up and waving in the waves the way it was supposed to, and then farther away there was another, tiny island shaped like a diamond. It would have just been shaped like a triangle if it wasn't for the small peninsula that mirrored the one on the main island, the underwater path connecting the two together. Toothless started to walk toward the tiny island and down onto the underwater path, but Hiccup pulled on the harness to try to steer him away from it.

 

"Just leave it, Toothless. There isn't anything over there," it took some coaxing, but eventually the dragon listened to his rider, and they were continuing on their circuit around the edge of the island. There really hadn't been anything there. The tiny island was flat, aside from two places on either side where it had jutted up before dropping off right into the water. There wasn't anywhere for his shield or his foot to hide, and the boat or its passenger certainly wasn't there either.

 

They had almost gotten to the end of the island entirely when they finally found the boat they had been looking for in the first place. It was fairly small, not even big enough to be a fishing boat, really. Although Hiccup's estimation of its size might have been skewed since it was in pieces. It was broken up like something decided to chew it up and spit it out, the largest piece was probably about half of the boat, with little bits scattered all over the beach. Toothless had to be urged closer to the wreckage, something was making him wary and he was sniffing at the air harder now like he was trying to catch the scent of something the seawater was overpowering. Hiccup was more worried about the wreckage, though, and he leaned over as far as he could on Toothless to look under the boat. There wasn't anything or anyone under it, and when he started looking over the smaller bits of wreckage he was expecting the worst. On some of the broken bits of wood there were spots of red-turning-to-brown that had spread huge and flowered with the already soaked-in seawater. There were some smears of it on the plants all around too, but those were harder to see than on the wood. Someone had been here, and they were bleeding, but he had no idea how long they had been here, or how bad the bleeding had been, and if there were animals on the island they probably would have come at the smell. He was still going to look for them but he had mostly resigned himself to the fact he was going to be looking for a body now instead of a person.

 

At least until there was a voice behind him, too familiar and too strained to be anything but danger.

 

"I knew you'd be around here somewhere, _Hiccup_."

 

Hiccup had to cling to the wet saddle when Toothless whipped around at the sound, mouth open and already screaming the warning that always came before the plasma blast. Beside some of broken trees, looking too pale and too wet but still dangerous and insane enough for a whole village, was Dagur the Deranged.


	3. Chapter 3

"Dagur," Hiccup gasped it out, more confused and startled than anything else at seeing the berserker, "What are you doing here?"

Dagur seemed to grimace and grin at the same time in a disturbing expression, and he jerked his head toward the boat in a sharp nod, "I crashed. I saw you right before the storm, though. I saw your Night Fury."

"If I knew it was you I would have just let the storm kill you," it was as much malice as Hiccup could muster at the moment. He still felt stupid, he came out all this way to try to help someone and it was Dagur. Dagur, of all people! He thought Alvin still had him locked up, or whatever it was Alvin had decided to do with the berserker chief. Hiccup didn't ask about it, he didn't care, and he didn't want to know. He was going to ask Alvin how Dagur managed to get away, though. As soon as he was back home. He turned Toothless to start away so he could deal with finding a way to rig the pedal to get back, and he almost didn't stop when Dagur yelled at him.

"You're helping me get back to land! Any land, I don't care."

"Why should I?" Hiccup yelled back, still angry, and blaming Dagur for all of this because if it wasn't for him in that stupid little boat Hiccup wouldn't be here now. He narrowed his eyes over his shoulder to glare back at Dagur, then he pulled on the harness to make Toothless stop.

Dagur had his shield, shining bright where the maniac was holding it up with his left hand even in the dim light through the gray clouds that were still rolling overhead. 

Hiccup really should have been more specific when he was praying before. 

"What's stopping me from just taking that from you, huh?" Hiccup pulled and guided Toothless back to face Dagur, and the dragon was more than happy to advance on him, mouth open and blue light already starting to glow from deep in his throat. Hiccup wasn't worried about his shield, he was just angry. It was all Dagur's fault, him being out here, and crashing, and losing his foot, and now he was trying to bribe him! Even if Dagur was stronger he was pale and obviously hurt and Hiccup was the one with a dragon. "Why shouldn't I just get rid of you right now? It wouldn't start a war, no one even knows you're here!"

It felt good to yell out his frustrations but Dagur didn't seem to be hearing them. Or if he was hearing them he didn't care, which was worse.

"Why aren't you flying?"

"What?" for a second Hiccup was knocked out of his rage and he was just sitting there dumbly staring at Dagur while the berserker looked over him and Toothless.

"Why aren't you flying?" Dagur said it again, teeth bared in anger. Or maybe they were just pressed together because of pain, because with a slightly clearer head Hiccup finally noticed the red-stained cloth wrapped around Dagur's right arm. Hiccup had almost forgotten about the blood on the boat entirely. It was like Dagur could see the moment when Hiccup wasn't on guard, because as soon as it was there he was flinging the shield at Hiccup hard. It was too fast for Hiccup to react, it was even too fast for Toothless, and it hit the small viking hard in the side and knocked him clean off of the saddle. If Hiccup hadn't been winded he would have cried out in pain when he fell back onto the aching bruise where his shield had cracked into the back of his head when he first lost it. He could hear Toothless screaming, charging, slipping on the wet seaweed-grass but that didn't seem to lose him any of his advantage. Hiccup struggled up, pushing the shield off of him but keeping a protective grip on it. He started to sit up just so he could crouch behind it entirely and hide from Dagur's knives and sword and ax and whatever else he had.

Dagur didn't have his weapons, though. He didn't have his armor. If he had either he wouldn't have been pinned under Toothless and trying to shove and punch the dragon away as he slipped and tried to kick back from Toothless on the ground. Toothless didn't give him a chance to get a good hit in and bit down on the bandaged arm. At first Hiccup thought Toothless had bitten clean through him with the way Dagur screamed, but there wasn't enough blood for that, and even by nature Toothless wasn't that vicious. If he had been Hiccup wouldn't have survived letting him go after he first brought him down.

But Dagur was finally still and Hiccup could see the wrapping around the arm in Toothless's mouth, wet and red in places, with a chunk of wood under the cloth and against his arm. And that explained why he was so pale, and why his voice was so strained, and why he wasn't fighting against Toothless now.

"Your arm's broken," it wasn't a question when Hiccup said it. That's why Dagur tried to bribe him instead of just trying to take Toothless. He wouldn't have been able to control the Night Fury even at his best but he probably couldn't fly Toothless without help even if the dragon was willing the way he was now. Dagur started to snarl something and Toothless held the arm tighter in his teeth for a moment, and whatever Dagur was going to snarl at him was lost in a pained yell.


	4. Chapter 4

"Toothless, stop. Just drop him and come here," because no matter what Hiccup was thinking about before he wasn't going to just torture Dagur while he was as helpless as the berserker ever got. Toothless obeyed and spat out Dagur so he could come back to get his rider. Hiccup put the shield onto his back and started to haul himself up awkwardly back onto the saddle, it was harder to manage with the weight on his back and the new pain in his side but he got it eventually. 

"Your leg's gone," Dagur was doing little more than whimpering when he talked now, but with Hiccup up on his dragon he was trying to shove himself up to so he could at least sit.

"Yeah, that happens a lot," Hiccup just snapped back at him, voice a little less pained than Dagur's, but not by much. He didn't want to deal with Dagur, not like this, not ever again.

"Hiccup..." there was a long pause that turned into an awkward silence as Dagur looked from Hiccup to the ground and then out to the ocean. 

"Was there more to that thought or do you just like saying my name?" The remark got him a glare but Hiccup really couldn't care less at that point. He was actually glad for it. 

Dagur did finally manage to finish his thought, and it was the smallest Hiccup ever heard his voice, "I need your help."

"So you bribe me, and then you attack me? That's what you thought was the best way to get my help? Not 'please' or 'I'll do anything you say' or even 'I promise not to hurt you'? Can you just not be insane for two minutes and act like a normal person!" because Hiccup didn't care how small Dagur's voice was or how in pain he was or that he was probably going to help the deranged jerk anyway. Right now he just wanted to yell at him. The words hung in the air and Dagur didn't really respond to the yelling, at least not at first, but eventually he nodded.

"Alright... I can do that. I need your help getting off this place... please," Dagur wouldn't look at Hiccup when he said it, but the fact that he said anything even slightly approaching something that wasn't violent or insane was... something. Not really good or comforting, but it was a start.

"Fine," Hiccup barked it as him and moved to find somewhere flat and open so he could keep an eye on Dagur and have somewhere to sit and think. It wasn't kindness that made him agree. Without his foot Hiccup couldn't fly Toothless but Dagur might have been able to use the pedal if Hiccup told him how. It should last long enough to at least get them somewhere that was close by or another village that would at least let Hiccup use their forge. He wouldn't be able to completely recreate his leg without time and Gobber's help but he could make something good enough for the trip back. It took a while--Hiccup had to have been as least ten feet in front of him--before Dagur finally got up and started following. Either he was hurt worse than it looked or he was trying to do the same thing Hiccup wanted to do and keep his enemies in his sight and far enough away to be somewhat safe. That was fine, if anything it was good. It meant they had an unspoken agreement not to come too close to each other or touch each other.

After a bit of walking Hiccup found a place that was good enough. It was far enough away from the weird, slick, sloping beach that if he took anything out of the saddle or Toothless' tail it wouldn't go sliding into the ocean but open enough that he wouldn't be able to be trapped in a clump of the broken trees all over the place. He had Toothless settle down on one side of the... well, 'clearing' didn't describe it well, it was still full of the wet, flat grass that was everywhere, but there wasn't a better word Hiccup could think of for it. Without having to say anything or have anything said to him Dagur went to the other side of the clearing, as far away from Hiccup as could be managed, and he sat down to lean against one of the broken trees. From where he was Hiccup could see Dagur jerk when he started going too far back, then lean back again, more tentative the second time. The tree had broken fairly low, it made something similar to the back of a chair Dagur could put his weight against, but it wasn't entirely stable. It gave some under the berserker but didn't break further, it just meant he was leaning back more than he meant to. 

Dagur looked worse than before, or maybe it was just that Hiccup was actually noticing how bad he was now. He wasn't wearing any armor, not even his helmet, and it made the berserker seem stripped down like he wasn't quite dressed and Hiccup shouldn't have been staring. Dagur was almost horridly pale, either from pain or blood loss--probably pain--and the paint over his eye and arm had been mostly rubbed off. There were still sparse smears of blue where it had been before and where the paint that had been over his eye there was still some lingering pigment, darker there more than anywhere else. It was smeared and dark and had lost any clarity of the lines that had once been there, giving him a sort of half-dead look that reminded Hiccup of Hel. Dagur's shirt was torn up, but he had probably done that himself to use the scraps of fabric as bandages. Either he had been staring for too long or Dagur was on edge from everything--probably that one, the young chief wasn't quite paranoid, but he was as close as you could get without being it fully--but the berserker finally seemed to notice Hiccup watching him.

"What? Finally realized how handsome I am?" Dagur grinned, too toothily and too obviously trying to cover up his pain and discomfort. It still worked, though, and Hiccup turned red and glared at him before he started to get off of Toothless carefully. Dagur was never one to just take an easy victory without gloating, "Going to sketch me later?"

"Shut up," Hiccup snapped it as he braced against Toothless to make his way back to his tail, finally sitting down on it. He didn't trust his dragon not to start flicking his tail, either because Dagur was there and Toothless was on-edge or because he always tried to move his tail when Hiccup was doing something to it. Hiccup looked over the parts and pieces first, he made sure the fabric didn't have any holes or rips, he made sure the rods were still all there, and after a quick inspection he started to feel better. At least it wasn't entirely hopeless.

"Looks like everything's still here. That's a first," Hiccup looked back to Toothless, but his dragon was still staring at Dagur, his pupils just dark slits and eyes narrow, like he was expecting to have to attack the berserker again. Hiccup didn't blame him, if anything he should have been more like Toothless, but he might really need Dagur's help and the berserker seemed to have used up his last bit of strength when he threw his shield at him before. 

"Can't you just lock it into place?" 

It took Hiccup a moment to realize Dagur wasn't just mocking him again, that he had offered a real suggestion to the problem. Hiccup looked down at the tail fin, shifting his weight some on Toothless' tail to reach down and spread it out fully, looking over the gears that helped the fin to extend and collapse with directions from the pedal. It was possible, although not really preferable. "Maybe. But if I do that Toothless isn't going to be able to fly as well, and it'll make landing hard."

"What do you need for it?"

Hiccup glanced back at Dagur over on his edge of the clearing. With a huff the small viking turned back to the problem on the tail and said the only thing he could really think of, "A forge."

There was a low sound and Hiccup tensed, looking back to Dagur, not sure if that was some warning before attacking him, or if they were going to finally encounter some wildlife on the mystery island, but it was just Dagur. ...Smiling. And then Hiccup remembered the sound. He'd heard it often enough, usually when he didn't want to. Dagur had actually laughed at that.

Hiccup looked back to the fin, and after a few tense moments, he just slid off of Toothless' tail and patted him, gesturing his dragon closer so he could haul himself up with his Toothless' help, getting back onto the saddle so he could get out of the clearing. He wasn't really ready to deal with whatever it meant when Dagur started laughing at his jokes.

"Where are you going?"

Hiccup shrugged and started off, "Around. I think I have an idea about this place, but I want another look around first."


	5. Chapter 5

It was refreshing to get away from Dagur. Hiccup had been listening for a while, to try to tell if Dagur might have been somewhere behind them and following them, but it seemed like the berserker had just stayed in the clearing. Even so, Hiccup was guiding Toothless through the dense brush of the forest. Dagur wouldn't be able to follow them, Hiccup wasn't even sure if he would have been able to follow Toothless the way the dragon was crawling over bent and broken trees. Even if he had both feet Hiccup would be falling over and slipping every step of the way.

 

The trees were all the same, and when Hiccup reached to touch them they were all sort of soft, wet and slick, and seemed hollow. That might have been the real reason they fell over, not because they were battered around in the storm, but because they just weren't able to hold up their own weight in the air. The more Hiccup wandered, the more he tugged at the grasses and pulled up things he thought were rocks but turned out to be barnacles attached to the base of the trees, the more he was convinced that the island hadn't ever been there before. It wasn't grass, it was seaweed. That was all it was, great big clumps of seaweed, some of which had grown huge and long into the trees that were bent over now. When Toothless hurried over to a fallen clump of the sea-trees and shoved them over to get at fish, in the middle of the island, Hiccup was convinced. At some point, maybe because of the storm, a huge underwater chunk of land had come up to the surface, with the fish Toothless was eating trapped in the grass when it came up. There might have been more fish somewhere, but Hiccup didn't want to spend any more time on the island to find out, and he sure didn't want to stay on it long enough to have to eat. Just because the island had come up to the surface didn't mean it was going to stay there, it might sink back down to the ocean for some reason, and even if it didn't there would probably be dragons like Thunderdrums or Scaldrons swimming around that would think the island would be the perfect place to rest if it wasn't for the annoying humans and Night Fury already on it. Wild dragons just wanted to claim their land and protect it, and that was easy enough to handle when he was fine, but Hiccup was missing his leg, and Toothless couldn't fly without his help, and Dagur... well, he just plain didn't trust Dagur. He might not have been be a threat to wild dragons with how he was, but Hiccup didn't want to risk it.

 

Hiccup let Toothless finish eating his fish then started guiding him back. ...At least he hoped it was back. At first he was sure they were following the same path, but then it was harder. The sea-trees were all sort of the same, all weird and bent and some cracked open to show they were hollow, but there wasn't really anything that made one look different from the others. The seaweed didn't help, it wasn't like grass on Berk that would be pushed aside or bent when it was walked through. It was all wet and whatever was limp enough to be plastered to the ground was already there and making it slick. Whatever was springy enough to stick back up was going to do it whether or not Toothless walked on it. After a while it was obvious they were lost, Hiccup had been trying to get back to the clearing a lot longer than he had been leading Toothless away from it.

 

"Alright, new plan. We're going to pick a direction and just keep going straight. The island isn't that big, we'll hit the edge and then we can find Dagur," Hiccup patted Toothless' head as he said it, rubbing over shining black scales to try to soothe him and as a tiny apology for making him wander all over the place like this. At least that plan seemed like a good one, the island had the funny little island connected by the underwater strip of land on one side of the oblong shape as a landmark. It was going to be an annoying trek going from that to where he found Dagur and left him, but it was doable. It wasn't until Hiccup had to tug Toothless almost constantly to keep going straight that he started to worry. Unless there was a good reason to his dragon listened to him, and when he didn't then it was because Toothless knew something Hiccup didn't. The fins were twitching on top of Toothless' head, his head was tilting to the side now and then like he was listening and when Hiccup reached to touch the dragon's back the Night Fury was overly tense.

 

"Bud, what is it?" Hiccup gave up on trying to keep his dragon going straight and started looking around with him. Something was up. Was it Dagur? He might've been faking being hurt, or he was just too crazy for a broken bone to hold him back for too long. Something rustled and squished off to the right and Toothless turned to face it. Hiccup was so convinced it would be Dagur that when the Scaldron shoved its way through a clump of the sea-trees he wasn't sure what to think. It wasn't as big as an adult but it was a little more than halfway to the size, just a juvenile old enough to go swimming off on her own and looking for a good place to rest for a little while. The problem with juveniles was that sometimes they were worse than adults, more violent and willing to attack first because they were scared easier and they weren't quite sure how to defend themselves from other dragons yet. And that was what happened. The Scaldron saw them, she had probably just come to investigate whatever sounds he and Toothless had been making--which might have been why Toothless was trying to pick his own path through the forest--and now that she was face to face with a Night Fury the Scaldron was scared. And because she was scared and wanted Toothless gone she attacked.

 

Toothless jumped out of the way of the blast of boiling water and the steam from it raised a thick, humid cloud in its wake. Toothless screamed at her, just trying to do the same thing she was and scare her off, but it backfired and the Scaldron let out another blast of water at them as she charged. Toothless jumped again and started running, and Hiccup just trusted him to know where to go while he looked back to the Scaldron and unslung his shield from his back. The best he could do was try to deflect any water with it that Toothless wasn't able to jump away from. It was hard, Hiccup was twisted around weirdly in his saddle, not able to get his foot out of the stirrup without fear that he'd fall off Toothless entirely, but he was able to block most of the water blast that came after them. For a moment they were completely wrapped up in the steam from the blast, like hot fog clouding out everything, but Toothless was still running and they were out of it, and Hiccup saw the Scaldron run right through the white haze after them.

 

Hiccup was still twisted around in his saddle when Toothless came into the clearing and dug his claws in, the Night Fury came to a sharp stop and turned to face the Scaldron as Hiccup went tumbling out of the saddle awkwardly. He was scrambling to get up as soon as he was on the ground, his side and his head throbbing with newfound vigor from the fall, but most of his vision was blocked. Toothless was on one side of him, wings flared and teeth bared, and Dagur was on the other. He looked awful, pale and sweating and teeth tight together, holding a piece of one of the broken sea-trees like a club.

 

"That's not going to work, it's hollow!" Hiccup yelled it at Dagur before he was even fully sitting up.

 

"That doesn't matter," Dagur's voice was too rough, too pained and too forced to sound as loud as it did right now. He was holding the chunk of tree with both hands, like he was just acting like his arm wasn't broken. ...And that's exactly why it didn't matter. It was still big, and Dagur was still going to try to bluff his way through the confrontation, act like he was fine and in control. The berserker yelled at the Scaldron, it was a loud and angry sound, like it was nothing but rage coming out of something barely above a rabid animal. It was like a spark in the dark, a sudden flash of flint before the fire caught in the kindling, and Hiccup realized why his father had tried for so long to keep peace with the berserkers. He knew if he had seen something like that on the battlefield, and not just Dagur, a whole army willing to at least _look_ like they were ready and even eager to keep fighting when they were that beaten up already, he'd hesitate and he might even pull back.

 

It was what the Scaldron was doing, after all. She had paused at the scream, her wings flared but her dewlap collapsed for the moment, not readying another blast of water just yet. She wasn't running off, she seemed to be considering it, weighing if she should keep going. Toothless helped her make up her mind, he let out a plasma blast by her front legs and then the Scaldron was running, not back into the trees but toward the beach so she could dive back down into the water and leave the island to them.

 

It wasn't until they heard the splash of the Scaldron leaving that Dagur and Toothless finally relaxed, Toothless turned back to Hiccup to make sure he was alright, and Dagur just fell to his knees and held his battered and bleeding arm close to himself. Hiccup rubbed over Toothless' face first, reassuring the dragon, before he moved to touch Dagur's back tenatively, "We need to get out of here."

 

"You _think_?" Dagur barked it at him, voice cracking because of pain and probably after screaming that loud at the dragon.

 

"It's not just wild dragons. I think this island came up from the bottom of the ocean, and if it did, then it might--"

 

Suddenly the ground rocked under them, and Dagur tumbled back into Hiccup with a yell. It wasn't bravado, it was just pain, and Hiccup kept still instead of pushing the berserker off of him because he wasn't ready to hurt him worse. Not after... after he had tried to protect him. Dagur actually tried to protect him, didn't he?

 

"What was that?" it was barely more than a whimper and Hiccup looked at Dagur, getting his hands against the young chief's back to help him back to his knees.

 

"I think the island is sinking."


	6. Chapter 6

"You think the island is _what?_ "

 

Hiccup didn't have to answer. The ground was lurching under them, solid and huge and there was a definite tilt down toward one end of the island that wasn't there before. Toothless felt it too, his wings were spread wide and he was nearly prancing as he let out loud, guttural barks at the sinking end of the island. Hiccup pushed himself up and limped awkwardly to Toothless to try to help him keep still if the dragon wasn't going to keep calm. Even so it took more time and more effort for Hiccup to get back up onto the saddle than he would have liked, and when Hiccup was settled Toothless tried to run.

 

"Bud, no! Toothless, _stop!_ " Hiccup had to wrestle with the dragon, and he almost didn't manage to make him stay, but when he stilled Toothless Hiccup looked back to Dagur. If the island was sinking they needed to fly and to do that they needed Dagur's help. Either Dagur knew that or he wasn't going to give Hiccup and Toothless another chance to get away, he was getting up to chase after them, stumbling and weak and slow like that, but he made it and Hiccup reached to help haul the older teen up into the saddle behind him. He had the sudden image of Dagur against his back, good arm around his throat, the berserker just squeezing until Hiccup stopped breathing and then until he stopped doing anything ever again. But it didn't happen. Dagur just sagged against Hiccup's shield, his breathing in short and pained gasps, his forehead against the scrawny boy's shoulder and his cheek pressed to the edge of the shining shield. Hiccup had to actually reach and haul Dagur's good arm around him so he wouldn't fall when Toothless started running again.

 

The trip was jarring and Hiccup could feel every hard hit of his friend's feet on the ground as a new throb of pain in his side and the back of his head. Toothless ran out of the clearing and to the sloping edges of the island near the water. When Hiccup looked back he could see one edge of the island sinking down into the water way faster than he had hoped it would be sinking, and of _course_ it was the side they were closest to. Hiccup didn't even have to tell Toothless what to do, the Night Fury just started running again toward the other side of the island. It wouldn't be a perfect situation, but it would buy them time.

 

"Dagur," Hiccup looked back to the berserker as well as he could, but Dagur was still slumped over and Hiccup didn't really feel him gripping onto him. "Oh come on, don't faint!"

 

"M'not..." it was barely more than a mumble but it meant Dagur was conscious. Sort of.

 

"Listen, wake up, you know how Toothless flies, right? You've seen us?" Hiccup felt a nod against his shoulder where Dagur was still resting his head. Good, conscious and responsive, this was almost not as hopeless as it could be.

 

"Do you know how his tail works? That I have to--"

 

"Fly him with the pedal..." Dagur finished the sentence, still quiet but sounding a little more like himself. Meaning he sounded more angry than pitiful.

 

"You noticed that, huh? Sometimes I wish you're stupider than you actually are," Hiccup mumbled it, although the last word came out as a yelp as Toothless lost his footing and nearly slipped onto his side with a screech, knocked off balance by the island lurching again. Right, running out of time, and Hiccup looked back to Dagur again, "Not now, though! I need you to work the pedal, there's a plate the whole mechanism is built on, you can just put your foot on that, and tilt your foot forward or back when I tell you when."

 

Dagur was too quiet for too long--although it was probably just a couple of seconds--and Hiccup worried he had really passed out until he felt the berserker tighten his grip around his middle and start to sit up. That same image came back to him, Dagur grinning, probably laughing as he choked the life out of Hiccup.

 

"You want me to fly your dragon?" His voice was still too quiet and pained to really be coming out of someone who was going to kill him that easily, though. It was weak and just confused. The way Dagur was now Hiccup might have actually been able to win in a fight against him. That thought helped some.

 

"Not really, but I don't have a choice right now. You, foot, pedal, tilt it forward and then back," It was a little easier to just bark orders at him than it was to try to talk. Maybe Dagur thought it was easier to just obey at the moment than to try to think too, because as soon as Hiccup said it Dagur tightened his grip on Hiccup some, just to have something to brace against as he shifted his weight on the saddle. It took a couple tries, and Dagur almost fell off and dragged Hiccup down with him, but eventually he got his foot in the pedal and did what he was told. Hiccup twisted around some to look back at the tailfin and see if it was still working right before he started telling Dagur what to actually do to help him fly. Hiccup didn't like letting the berserker know any of it, but at least he was still steering, so it wasn't like he let Dagur have complete control of his dragon.

 

They were nearly at the other end of the island before Hiccup finally got Toothless to go up into the air, and once they were flying it was like he had left a weight back on the ground. Yeah, he was stuck with Dagur, but he and Toothless were back up where they belonged. He was going to go home and his dad could deal with Dagur and why he wasn't in Alvin's cell and where to put him and everything else that was just one giant headache.

 

He felt Dagur shift and just assumed the berserker was close to falling off so Hiccup grabbed the other boy's wrist and pulled him closer so he wouldn't pitch over the side. Dagur didn't really get much closer, though, and he didn't straighten himself up the way Hiccup wanted him to.

 

"What is that?"

 

"What's what?" Hiccup huffed and looked back to Dagur, then down at the island the berserker was staring at. It was halfway under the water now in a weird slope, but that wasn't the interesting part. The interesting part was the long peninsula that had been what connected the island to the small island that was basically just a floating rock out in the ocean. The rock that was now bent up and watching the Night Fury as it flew. The two ridges were over four great eyes, two on each side, two looking to the side and two pointed forward toward the middle, all of them hidden from behind by the ridges. Around it were huge plate scales, the largest ones at the top, and they just sort of seemed to become like broken up rock farther down until it was just rough scales that looked almost delicate in comparison. It was a gigantic head raising up from the water and watching them, attached to a long neck that was attached to the island. But it wasn't an island, because where the huge thing had tilted itself out of the water the starts of long, strong fins could be seen, going down into the ocean so far that they just disappeared into the murky depth. It rivaled the side of the Red Death, if it wasn't bigger than it, and it was hard to tell if it was blue or gray or some weird shade of green under all the seaweed that had started to grow on it.

 

"It's a dragon..." Hiccup said it softly, he almost whispered it like the great beast could hear them. Maybe it could.

 

Maybe it didn't like them, because it opened its mouth and let out an impossibly loud and deep sound, something Hiccup could feel shaking him to his very core. Toothless wobbled in the air, wings working hard and tail thrashing as he tried to regain his balance. Hiccup winced and tried to brace against the noise, just holding onto the saddle and hoping Toothless could outlast the disorientating sound. Dagur tried to cling to Hiccup, but he was weak and Toothless was unsteady and jerky in the air. Hiccup felt the other boy slip to one side of the saddle then off it completely. Dagur's fingers clawed against his belly and side through his shirt before he was gone, and without someone working the pedal the tailfin collapsed.


	7. Chapter 7

Hiccup and Toothless hit the water a little after Dagur did, but when Hiccup broke through the surface and looked around him he was the only one up. Just him and the giant dragon he thought was an island way too close to him and watching him. He panicked and started looking around. What happened? Did the fall stun Toothless? Was he swimming somewhere? Or did Dagur do something to the saddle when he fell, twisted it somehow so Toothless had a leg trapped or couldn't use a wing to swim? Hiccup wasn't sure if Dagur's battered arm was still bleeding but last time he saw it the bandages were bloody and it was still red instead of brown and dried. He could have attracted sharks, couldn't he? Was Toothless dealing with sharks? Was he being eaten?

 

"Toothless!" Hiccup screamed it, looking around and not sure where to go or what to swim for, or if he should try to dive down. And do what? He was already struggling to keep up in the water with the shield on his back. There was a dagger in his boot, but what was that going to do against a shark? Give it an awesome scar it could tell stories to the other sharks about? He was useless, and he was hopeless, and he was so focused on sharks that when something came up from under him and hit him in his belly he screamed.

 

Toothless had tucked his head against Hiccup as he was resurfacing in the ocean, and he lifted the runty viking mostly up and out of the water easily. As soon as Hiccup realized he was safe and his friend was fine he was clinging to Toothless, pressing his forehead against smooth, black, wet scales and thanking whatever god he could think of. Toothless was alright, he was really alright. There was a groan and Hiccup finally looked up, slipping on his dragon's smooth hide and having to cling to Toothless's neck so he wouldn't fall back into the water entirely. Clinging to the saddle with his one good arm was Dagur, his knuckles white as sunbleached bone. Hiccup looked back to Toothless, the dragon watching him to make sure he had done the right thing by stopping the berserker from sinking to the bottom of the ocean. Hiccup hugged him close, clinging to Toothless, because even if he didn't really care about Dagur at the moment he knew what it meant. That no matter what, even if it involved getting help from someone that awful, Toothless was willing to trust Hiccup and what he decided on.

 

"Thank you," Hiccup squeezed him once more before letting go of the Night Fury's neck, starting to work his way back to the saddle where Dagur was. He was clinging to it and half in the water, his foot up against the stirrup, and Hiccup had to push him some to be able to get up onto his dragon. Dagur yelped, a high and pained sound, and Hiccup winced as he reached to start trying to haul him back up. The water dragon was giant, but it seemed to be slow, it wasn't doing anything just yet.

 

Hiccup slipped when Dagur was halfway on the saddle with him. Toothless was already swimming even if they weren't both on there.

 

He was swimming right toward the gigantic dragon.

 

Hiccup jerked and tried to yank Dagur up onto the saddle first, he had to deal with one thing at a time and he couldn't keep clinging onto someone who had to weigh three times as much as he did. Once he was up Dagur didn't need much more attention, he was settling behind Hiccup and leaning heavily on his shield again. Too heavily.

 

"What are you trying to do, crush me?" Hiccup pressed back against Dagur, but it was more to sit up straight so he wasn't being squished into the saddle than to get the other boy off of him.

 

"What's it doing?" the berserker's voice was rough after everything, and he jerked and coughed after he said it, like he hadn't quite gotten all of the saltwater out of him yet.

 

Hiccup looked back to the huge dragon. It was just watching them. Or, it was watching Toothless as he swam closer, and eventually the huge thing started leaning in to get a better look at them. "I don't know."

 

"Then make it stop!" Dagur tried to yell, but that just sent him off on another coughing fit. Hiccup braced against the saddle when Dagur slumped on him again and looked down at his dragon. ...If Toothless was willing to trust Hiccup when it came to Dagur then he could trust Toothless when it came to this.

 

"No. Toothless isn't stupid, we're going to just see what he does," Hiccup managed to sound more sure of it than he was. Dagur didn't say anything else, but that might have been because he was still coughing and gasping in air.

 

The closer they got to it the more Hiccup could see about the huge dragon. It didn't really have a lip like most of them had as much as it had a huge beak inverted, giant scales coming up from the bottom lip to form a solid, flat ridge all along its mouth with a gap just at the very front. Its nostrils were up weirdly high, almost between the ridges over its eyes. It didn't look angry or scared, like the Scaldron before. It just looked curious, like when one of the Terrible Terrors back on Berk would start following a bug around. Although the Terrors usually ended up eating whatever bugs they followed around for a while. And this dragon wouldn't even have to chew them to get them down...

 

Hiccup tensed when the huge head started coming closer, and Dagur clung tighter around his middle, but the head wasn't coming down to eat them, it hit the water near them and the wave that started was huge. Toothless started tipping backward and his wings flared to keep himself steady, but aside from that he seemed weirdly calm about it. Which was good because Hiccup felt his heart going a mile a minute and Dagur was clinging to Hiccup hard enough that his shield was starting to dig into his back. The dragon's head started to rise up and the huge edge of the beak came up behind Toothless' tail, Hiccup had the feeling that was probably as gently as the gigantic creature could manage to scoop them out of the water. Hiccup looked down at the water draining from Toothless' feet, to where it was emptying back into the ocean from the gap between the huge scales on the gigantic dragon's mouth, and then to the four eyes that were still studying them.

 

"If it's going to eat us can it just hurry up?" Dagur was starting to relax his iron grip on Hiccup, and the scrawny teen felt like he could take in a real breath now.

 

"I don't think it's going to eat us. I think it's helping us."

 

"Helping? How is it helping, it's--" Dagur was cut off by the sudden jerk under them. The huge dragon had tilted its head down and nodded it back up, and Hiccup realized what it was doing immediately. It was the same little toss he'd give to Sharpshot to get him to take to the air. Toothless knew what it was too, his wings went out and he started to fly at the help into the air. Dagur wasn't ready, though. Hiccup didn't know what was going on until it was already happening so he didn't have time to tell the berserker what to do. They were falling a second time and again they crashed into the water. The only difference was that this time they managed to stay together during the impact.

 

The huge dragon tilted its head down and scooped them up in the same way that it did before, but instead of trying to toss Toothless back up into the air it turned to its own back and tilted its head to the side to get them to all tumble out and onto its seaweed covered back. It moved to settle back into the water the same way it had before, head settling down and looking like a small little island a good bit off. Toothless butted his nose against Hiccup's face until the boy reached up and patted him, then the Night Fury was walking away and along the gigantic dragon's neck.

 

"That was what you were trying to do before..." Hiccup said it to himself as he watched Toothless settle down carefully on the other dragon's head--probably to avoid covering up the nostrils--and he started to direct the huge thing. Toothless put his fins up, he was listening, and then he started to lean toward his right. The water dragon seemed to be fine with it, and with a lurch Hiccup could feel it starting to swim toward the direction Toothless had pointed in.

 

"See? It's helping us," Hiccup finally looked back to Dagur, and when he was still for too long he reached to shake his shoulder. "Dagur?"

 

Dagur didn't move, he didn't even make the pained sounds he was making before. He wasn't making any sounds at all.


	8. Chapter 8

If Hiccup had been thinking clearly he would have just sat back, or he would have called Toothless back so they could both go up and settle on the sea dragon's head, or he would have pushed Dagur off and into the ocean since he pretty much deserved an early funeral anyway. But Hiccup wasn't thinking clearly, he was worried and on-edge and half drowned after falling in the water twice. He moved closer to Dagur quickly, awkward on his knees and pushing at the larger boy and shaking him.

 

"Dagur! Dagur, get up! Don't die!" Hiccup hit his back at the last word, harder than he meant to, but it seemed to help and it knocked some of the water out of Dagur. Hiccup hit him again as hard as he could--which was actually fairly hard, Hiccup was skinny and scrawny, but between his skin and bones was a fair amount of thin but hard muscle. He was pretty much raised hauling around the huge and heavy weapons the people of Berk would use. He might not be able to wield some of them particularly well, but he was strong enough to carry them and sharpen them and forge a few himself. Soon Dagur was coughing up what was left of the water in his lungs and rolling onto his side to let the rest drain out.

 

"You're actually alive," Hiccup grinned in spite of himself, even if it was Dagur he was relieved. The berserker's reply was to push himself over and retch into the seaweed, but it was mostly clear and was probably all saltwater his stomach couldn't handle anymore. Hiccup made a face and scooted back from him at that, "Elgh. That's disgusting. But you're alive."

 

Dagur just kept coughing and spat out what was left in his mouth. He tried to push himself back from his own mess and cried out when he twisted weirdly, so Hiccup reached for him and helped to pull him where there was less barf. The berserker just settled on his back, breathing still rough, but he was breathing and that was good enough.

 

"...just happened?"

 

Dagur's breathing was rough to the point that Hiccup didn't even realize he was talking until the end. Hiccup looked down at him and winced at the way the other boy looked. Dagur wasn't too pale and half dead anymore, he looked green and like he hadn't realized he was supposed to stop moving once he died.

 

"The dragon saved us. Scooped us out of the water, and I think Toothless is telling it how to get to Berk," Hiccup reached up to point to Toothless where he was still settled on the dragon's head. The fins on the Night Fury's head were still up, he was probably listening in case Hiccup called him for help.

 

"What?"

 

Hiccup sighed and dropped his hand, looking back to Dagur, "Just wait until you can actually talk, alright?"

 

Dagur just nodded, or at least he tried to. He winced and just went still and Hiccup frowned as he leaned in closer. Dagur hadn't been bleeding from his head before... Hiccup turned and looked at his shield, at the edge Dagur had been braced against, and there was a faint smear of blood against the edge of it that hadn't quite been washed out in the saltwater. The dragon rider winced. Dagur must have hit his head pretty hard the second time they fell, and he already wasn't in good shape. Hiccup touched near the blood and Dagur winced with a low growl.

 

"Shut up, I need to see how bad this is," Hiccup grumbled it and tugged his sleeve up over his hand to wipe away at some of the blood. At least the cut itself wasn't too bad, he wasn't sure how bad Dagur actually hit his head but the bleeding was just the fact that head injuries bled horribly. The smaller boy frowned when something felt off and touched farther from the red mess, putting his palm on Dagur's forehead. "Oh man, you're really hot."

 

There was enough left of Dagur in his battered skull to give a small, crooked grin and bark out a weak laugh at that, "Yeah, I know."

 

Hiccup glared at him and resisted the urge to smack Dagur upside the head. He probably should have, it was going to hurt Dagur way more than it would have hurt Hiccup right now.

 

"Don't be a jerk, I mean you have a fever. Did you know you were sick?" if Hiccup could assume anything from the way Dagur shifted and tried to look away from him at that he was going to go with that meant 'yes.'

 

"What were you even doing out here? On the ocean, in that boat? Did Alvin let you go?"

 

"You said the dragon was helping us. Why?" Apparently Dagur didn't want to answer any questions and had a few of his own instead. Hiccup sighed and looked back to Toothless and the sea dragon's head, not really bothered by answering dragon questions. He actually preferred it to trying to have an inquisition of his own, teaching people about dragons was normal to him.

 

"Most dragons aren't cruel. Usually they're just doing what comes naturally to them. They want food, and a safe place to rest, and usually friends like people do. And if something is small and needs help they'll give it."

 

"No," Dagur tried to push himself up with his good arm, but between how weak he was and Hiccup pushing him back down onto the seaweed the berserker just gave up. "It knocked us out of the sky. Why would it want to help us after attacking us?"

 

"Oh," Hiccup frowned and looked at Toothelss again as he thought. "I don't think it was attacking. I mean, look at the size of it. If it wanted to hurt us we wouldn't be able to stop it. Sometimes... sometimes dragons scream--I think they're trying to scold you--if you do something that hurts them or they hate and they want to make sure you know never to do it again. Toothless did it to me once."

 

"So why did it scream?"

 

"When Toothless scared off the Scaldron--"

 

" _Helped me_ scare it off."

 

"Yeah, ok, whatever, when he ' _helped you_ ' scare the Scaldron off he blasted the ground at her feet. The ground was this dragon's back. ...Or it's butt, I'm not sure which. Either way, it probably felt the blast and didn't want Toothless doing that again."

 

They were quiet for a little while after that. Dagur seemed fine with the answers or he just didn't want to talk anymore, which was fine, Hiccup didn't have a lot to talk about. At least he didn't think he did until he looked down at Dagur and his badly wrapped arm, "You didn't answer me. What were you doing before the storm?"

 

Dagur glared at him and looked to the ocean, and after a few minutes Hiccup huffed, "Fine, then. Don't tell me. Tell my dad when we get to Berk."

 

Hiccup reached for Dagur's wrapped arm, and jerked when the berserker suddenly tried to pull back form him, "Fine, I'll tell you!"

 

"That's... good?" Hiccup was just confused, looking at Dagur and still reaching for his arm, and then it clicked. "I'm not going to torture you or anything! I want to make sure your arm isn't messed up worse after falling."

 

Dagur obviously didn't believe him and Hiccup didn't feel like pushing it, so he just settled back, "But you said you were going to tell me, so start telling me."

 

The berserker settled back down on the ground and seemed to be thinking of the best place to start before he finally muttered, "You don't have any water, do you?"

 

"Sure, tons of it. You like salt, right?" Hiccup huffed. Dagur might have been thirsty, but he was probably just stalling too. The bigger boy grinned again, crooked and strained as he rasped out a chuckle. Hiccup was sure he was never going to get used to Dagur laughing at his jokes, especially when he looked like he was going to just stop breathing again at any moment.


	9. Chapter 9

"Alvin kept me in one of the cells he had been keeping dragons in."

 

"That's pretty much standard on their island," Hiccup butted in as he shifted some, folding his legs under him so he could sit a little more comfortably. When he looked back up Dagur was glaring at him, and Hiccup bristled, "What? I'm not going to pity you. You were a prisoner. You probably still are one. And you tried to kill him. And me. A lot."

 

"You wanted to know what I was doing, I'm trying to tell you," and judging by how raspy his voice was Dagur didn't have a lot of words to spare before his throat gave up on him.

 

"Alright, fine. I won't say anything."

 

"Alvin kept me prisoner in one of the dragon cells. I don't think he meant to keep me for too long, kept saying what he was going to try to get from my tribe for returning me," Dagur spoke low and slowly. He might have been trying to pick the best words, or talking just hurt, or he was trying to make Hiccup lean in to hear him over the sound of moving water all around them. If it was the last one he was succeeding since Hiccup had scooted closer to hear the berserker a little more easily. Hiccup managed to not say anything even when he wanted to comment on Alvin being a particularly bad ally since he was willing to give back someone who was that dangerous and who would undoubtedly turn around and go right after Berk again.

 

"I don't know what he finally asked for. Maybe all of it. My sister... you know my sister, don't you?" Dagur asked as he looked over to Hiccup.

 

"Yeah, I saw her a couple times when she came to Berk with you and your dad. She always sort of stared off into nothing, it was creepy," the rider answered. It was just pity but Hiccup knew his hands were usually fairly cold and Dagur looked awful so he reached to put his hand on the bigger boy's forehead to help with the fever some. It probably wouldn't do much more than distract him from it for a little bit.

 

"No, that's Nott..."

 

"That's not what?" Hiccup asked it and frowned when Dagur seemed to be trying to grin again, "What? How is that funny?"

 

" _Nott._ It's my middle sister's name."

 

"Middle sister? You have more than one?" Hiccup was surprised at that. Dagur was the only one of Oswald's kids that always seemed to come to Berk during the yearly treaty signing. He saw his sister a couple of times, but she had always kept quiet and to herself and seemed more interested in staring up at Gothi's hut up on the hill. She never went up to it, just stared at it. For hours. It was unsettling and almost a relief when Dagur started coming to the meetings without his sibling.

 

"I have three..." Dagur shifted and winced, teeth bared in a snarl and Hiccup pulled his hand back like he expected Dagur to bite him.

 

"Stop moving, alright? Just keep still," Hiccup said as he reached to put his hand on Dagur's forehead again. As weird as it was the touch was almost reassuring, like if he just held it there long enough he'd be able to tame down Dagur like he would a wild dragon.

 

"Now moving is all I want to do," Dagur growled but he seemed to be trying not to squirm around again.

 

"Yeah, I know. I get like that too. Just, you have three sisters?"

 

Dagur nodded and seemed to have remembered his place in his story, "Yeah. My oldest sister, Bola, she was the one Alvin was trying to trade me back to. She came to my cell before she left. She said even if Alvin had offered to give me to the berserker tribe for free she wouldn't have let me back in."

 

"Why?" Hiccup asked and shifting his hand a little, down over Dagur's eyes since he was on his back and the sun was starting to shine from behind the storm clouds. "You're insane, you're murderous, you're violent. That sounds like the perfect berserker."

 

"I was," Dagur growled it out and Hiccup wondered if he shouldn't have tried to cover his eyes. But the larger boy relaxed after a moment and continued, "But I wasn't there. Problems between tribesmen, food issues, trading pacts, treaties, alliances. I hated dealing with that. I liked fighting more. I liked hunting down you a lot more."

 

"I'm flattered, really," Hiccup rolled his eyes, comfortable in the knowledge that right now Dagur couldn't see it.

 

"But all the problems were still there and Bola started blaming me for not taking care of them. She said the berserkers were almost starving because I had used trading ships in my battles and they were starting to stop coming to the island entirely."

 

Hiccup slid his hand from Dagur's eyes and back up to his forehead, making like he was brushing Dagur's red hair back, "You rely on trade that much?"

 

"Nothing grows on my island. Nothing ever grew on it. We used to just take what we wanted from other tribes and villages when nobody could stop us, but we had to start having treaties instead. My father said we needed the treaties, at least. I never believed him," Dagur still said anything about his father with an air of contempt that made Hiccup bristle.

 

"You were starving your own people just for that? Why were you even doing it? Just to fight because you _could_?"

 

Dagur was quiet for a while and then tried to look away, just turning his head away from Hiccup, "It doesn't matter now. It's their problem, not mine."

 

Hiccup sighed and looked in the other direction. Dagur was smart when he wanted to be, he was brilliant on the battlefield, but that seemed to be the only place. This, though... He didn't think Dagur's people and even his family would have abandoned him. Although he should have had the thought cross his mind, Dagur killed his own father, after all. Well. He probably killed his father. He kept saying things like eliminated or that things were arranged, so as barbaric as the berserkers were it probably didn't sit too well when someone killed a former chief and gloated about it. Or Dagur was just worried about someone else getting the same idea with him.

 

After a long few minutes Hiccup finally broke the silence, "So what was Alvin going to do with you, if he couldn't get something for you from your tribe?"

 

"I don't know. I didn't wait long enough to find out. I broke out of the cell and stole a boat and left."

 

"Just like that? Nobody tried to stop you?" Hiccup asked and glanced back down to Dagur while trying to pretend he was looking somewhere else.

 

"Nobody was on guard. I thought it was too easy, but they probably knew the storm was coming."

 

"They might not have noticed," Hiccup said.

 

"Or they didn't care and thought it would kill me for them," Dagur replied, and Hiccup felt guilty because he had pretty much been thinking the exact same thing.

 

"What are you going to do when we get to Berk?" Hiccup finally looked down at Dagur when he asked.

 

"I don't know. Be executed, probably."

 

"You think about death too much," Hiccup huffed and looked over to Toothless. Right then he wanted nothing more than to get up and walk away, and that was pretty much the one thing he couldn't do. He could definitely get away from Dagur if he really wanted to or had to, but he didn't want to try hopping on one foot on the seaweed or walking on his knees in front of the berserker.


	10. Chapter 10

The time went by slowly. After their talk Dagur didn't seem to be up to talking without being prompted, and Hiccup didn't really feel like prompting him. Toothless was still pointing the huge dragon in the right direction. Every now and then he'd turn one way or the other and the dragon would follow, or the dragon would ignore him and Toothless would stand up and make noises until they were on the right track again. Hiccup busied himself with looking over the seaweed that grew on the great dragon's back, and he pulled it up until he was able to reach down and touch the huge plate scales that the plants had all grown over. The plants weren't really rooted to the dragon, they were clinging to the crevices between the scales and old barnacles that hadn't fallen off when they died. There were a few places where the seaweed seemed to have rooted directly to other plants. There wasn't much holding the greenery on at all, but whatever kind of seaweed it was seemed to have been fine with attaching like this to it to the huge beast.

 

"You're going to need a name," Hiccup said it to the dragon, even if that was silly since he was so far away from it and so tiny the giant creature probably wouldn't have even been able to hear him let alone know what he was saying. So when Hiccup got a response he nearly jumped.

 

"You're going to name it?"

 

Hiccup looked back to Dagur. He hadn't been worried the other boy was dead, he was still breathing even if it had been labored and raspy. He had actually almost thought Dagur had fallen asleep just from the pain and exhaustion.

 

"Yeah, why wouldn't I?" Hiccup answered and shifted a little, not sure if he should try to encourage Dagur to talk to him or not.

 

"Are you planning on keeping it?"

 

"Probably not," Hiccup said and moved to just sit by Dagur again and look down at him. At least Dagur was showing an interest in dragons that didn't involve wearing their skulls as helmets. "But even if I don't keep this one I have to study it and name it so it can have a section in the Book of Dragons."

 

"Why?"

 

"Because that's how we learn," Hiccup put his hand back on Dagur's forehead. Either his hand had gotten colder or Dagur's fever was getting worse. Hiccup almost wished he was Gothi's apprentice instead of Gobber's, with some knowledge of healing he'd know how sick Dagur was and if there was anything that could be done like this.

 

"Bork wrote down everything he knew about dragons so future generations would know how to protect themselves," Hiccup was relaxing as he talked about it because this was the one thing he knew better than anything else. He didn't know what to do or say about Dagur's sister saying he couldn't come home or what Alvin was going to do to him, but if the former berserker was going to let Hiccup talk about dragons then he wasn't going to shut up. "But now I know a lot more about dragons than Bork did, and I want to make sure people aren't going to be afraid of them when I'm gone. So I write down everything I know and everything I discover, including new dragons like this one. It's huge, and yet there's nothing even close to like it in the book."

 

"You don't know anything about it, though."

 

"Sure I do. I know how far Toothless can walk in a minute, and I know how long it took us to walk form one side to the other, so I have a good idea about the size of it. Obviously plants grow on it, so it's probably not that fast or they wouldn't be able to start growing roots. Oh, and look, those?" Hiccup pointed to the great big stalks of the sea trees that were bent over and Dagur looked at where he was pointing. "Those are huge, but they can't support themselves out of the water, so it's probably underwater most of the time. Underwater, slow, huge. It's kind too, a lot of dragons would attack if something blasted them the way Toothless did, but it just roared and then when it figured out that Toothless couldn't fly it picked us up and put us on its back. And it’s smart, it was able to figure that out, and it's taking directions from Toothless over there."

 

Hiccup was feeling good, it was like he imagined lessons in the academy would go. He could just talk for a while and someone would listen, instead of Fishlegs correcting him about something small. Or Ruffnut and Tuffnut breaking something because they were bored. Or Snotlout saying something loud and obnoxious. Or Astrid hitting someone.

 

"I guess I didn't really notice all of that," Dagur said it and shifted so he wasn't craning his neck as far to look at what Hiccup was talking about. He winced, and Hiccup reached to pet him without thinking of it, the way he'd calm any hurt dragon.

 

"Yeah, you can learn a lot more about dragons if you stop trying to kill them," but like this it was hard to be really angry at Dagur for that. At first he had been trying to do what Bork had been doing, killing dragons since it was the only way he knew how to study them. He went overboard, which pretty much describes everything that Dagur does, but maybe Hiccup could wean him off of killing things. ...If the older boy wasn't going to be put to death when they came to Berk.

 

"...Island dragon."

 

Hiccup moved his hand to look down at Dagur, surprised at him, and after a moment he smiled a little, "I think that'd be too easy to confuse with Dragon Island. Besides, it doesn't even look like an island once you're on it, it looks like a big chunk from the bottom of the sea that's been brought up to the surface."

 

"Sealand, then."

 

Hiccup laughed a little at that, and he felt... _weird_ about it right afterward. Not bad, but knowing he _should_ feel bad. This was Dagur the Deranged, even if he was pitiful and couldn't move easily he was still one of the worst enemies Berk's had in years. Hiccup shouldn't laugh at anything he said unless it was to make Dagur feel stupid about something. But he still did, and he sort of liked having someone he could tell these things to, someone who didn't already know a lot of the things he did. And Dagur actually seemed kind of interested like this, even if it was probably just because it was either talk to Hiccup or stare up at the sky.

 

Dagur was looking up at him with a questioning expression and Hiccup realized he hadn't really said anything after he laughed. Which just made him feel weirder.

 

"You don't get to name anything," Hiccup finally said as he put his hand over Dagur's eyes again, blocking out the light and the fact that his face was turning red as he blushed.


	11. Chapter 11

After that they were quieter. Dagur asked how far it looked like they were from Berk and how long it might take, but other than that he seemed content to just lie there in pain and pretend he wasn't. Hiccup was assuming he was still in pain, Dagur was still breathing shallow and he was horribly pale, but he was a lot quieter. After a while Dagur seemed to have drifted off to sleep, he was still breathing awkwardly, but it was deeper, longer breaths now and every so often he made a sound like a whining growl that didn't really seem to be directed at anything. Hiccup had taken his hand off the other boy when he had fallen asleep since there wasn't much of a reason to keep Dagur from looking at him at that point and he reached over to touch him again. Dagur was... probably worse, honestly. Hiccup wasn't sure, wind off the ocean was cold and he was still damp, so he could have just been chilling down too much before he touched the other boy's hot skin again but he doubted it.

 

That wasn't the biggest problem, though. What was he going to do with Dagur? If he was sick he'd be easier to contain, but did Hiccup actually want to waste medicine on him? And if he did Dagur wasn't going to stay in Berk’s prison long. The cell hadn't been able to keep Heather behind bars, or Alvin. Dagur was smart, not the way Fishlegs or Hiccup was, but that single-minded battle smart that only cared about winning. He'd find a way out of the cell even if he had to claw through one of the stone walls to do it. If Dagur had an equal on Berk it was Astrid--and Hiccup glanced around quickly because he knew if he ever said that out loud she'd probably try to break a bone. But it was true, Astrid would do the same things Dagur would try to get out of the prison. She'd try brute force, then finding weak spots, going after the guards, or tricking them. She'd manage it eventually, and if she could manage it then Dagur probably could too.

 

So they wouldn't be able to contain Dagur for long. What then? Would he be executed? He waged war against a village he had been at peace with, he went after the chief's son in particular. And if he wasn't the Berserker High Chief anymore it meant nobody would really care that he was dead, at least not from a political point. Even if most of Berk didn't have the personal involvement that would made them hate the young chief they wouldn't care about Dagur dying. It'd just be a threat to Berk no longer being a threat. That might even be worth celebrating.

 

But... Hiccup didn't want Dagur dead. Not like this. Not when he was weak and pitiful and seemed to have stopped trying to fight back. He did it at first but after that one attack Dagur hadn't tried again, even with Toothless well away from them. Dagur could die, that he wasn't debating against, but some death where he'd be ranting and raving and being psychotic beforehand. When he was a threat that needed to be stopped, or if he was so beaten up and still coming after them that it was hard or impossible to know which blow had actually been the fatal one.

 

Part of that was pride. Dagur had made himself Hiccup's enemy, and if he was going to die then Hiccup wanted him to go out like that. His enemy, defeated in battle by a greater opponent.

 

"That's not right," Hiccup sighed and moved his hands up to bury his face in them. One was cold, the other was still warm from where he had been resting it on Dagur's forehead. "I can't think like that, that's just... It's horrible."

 

"What's horrible?"

 

Hiccup jumped away from Dagur and nearly fell onto his side, "You were asleep!"

 

" _Were_ ," Dagur said, his voice was still raspy and strained. He still looked half asleep and he was looking up at Hiccup like he wasn't quite seeing him, or didn't quite understand what he was looking at. "What's horrible?"

 

"Nothing, I was just thinking," Hiccup huffed and looked back to Toothless, just wanting to avoid looking at Dagur.

 

"About me?"

 

"Well you're pretty much the most horrible thing I can think of, so yeah, you," Hiccup said and glared down at him. It wasn't entirely fair to blame Dagur, he wasn't the one that made Hiccup feel guilty about killing him. He was just the jerk that made killing him a definite possibility. Dagur didn't seem to care too much, though, and he grinned for a moment like he was going to laugh but couldn't quite manage it. Hiccup wished he'd stop doing that.

 

"I was thinking about what I'm going to do with you once we're on Berk." That was enough to make Dagur stop his pained grin and he just looked up at Hiccup like he wanted him to explain. Hiccup didn't want to explain anything, though. The fact he didn't have it figured out himself didn't help.

 

"Are you going to kill me?" Dagur asked when it was obvious Hiccup wasn't going to keep talking without being prompted.

 

"I don't know, maybe. It'd probably be easier if I did," Hiccup didn't say it with any sort of real hate behind it. He wished he had, or he wished he could have, or that at some point when Dagur needed his help on the dragon Hiccup had just left him behind.

 

"Or?" Dagur said it quietly, so quietly Hiccup almost thought Dagur had fallen asleep and just grunted again. After a moment the stronger boy kept going, "If you don't kill me, what are you going to do with me?"

 

Hiccup shrugged, "Imprison you. Maybe put you to work. Are you good at anything other than fighting? You look like you could haul a lot. Well, you normally look like you could, right now I'm not sure you can even stand up."

 

Dagur didn't ask anything else for a while. He might have been trying to figure out what was going to happen to him. Hiccup was thinking about the same thing. There didn't seem to be any easy way out of it, either he'd feel guilty, maybe forever, or he'd be having a huge threat staying on the island with his friends and family. The silence was broken by a high-pitched whine and they both looked to Toothless as the dragon sat back on his haunches and fired a plasma blast up into the dull grey sky.

 

"What's he doing?" Dagur didn't look back to Hiccup when he asked, he was still looking at where the plasma had dispersed.

 

"We're close enough to Berk for him to signal to the other dragons," Hiccup said. He felt like there was a rock in his stomach. No matter what was going to happen to Dagur they were going to find out about it soon.


	12. Chapter 12

It wasn't long before there were four little splotches in the sky that grew bigger until it was four dragons coming toward them. Someone was probably pointing out that the island wasn't there before. Probably Fishlegs. Hiccup felt like he should have been doing something to get ready for his friends arriving, but he couldn't really get up and walk around and he wasn't carrying anything that had to be collected. Dagur would need help to get back up when it was time to get onto a dragon, but it was probably best for everybody--Dagur included--if he just stayed lying down and as nonthreatening as possible until that time.

 

Stormfly came into view first. That wasn't surprising, she was the fastest after Toothless and Astrid was fearless to the point of being reckless sometimes. The Nadder landed a little ways away, she tried the seaweed under her feet, scratched at it with her head cocked to look at it, and when she seemed satisfied that it was alright she finally folded her wings and lowered down to the ground enough for Astrid to jump off.

 

"Hiccup, what happened? You worried everyone to death, we thought you had gotten caught in the storm, and..." Astrid trailed off but she didn't stop walking toward them. She sped up and hauled up her axe, teeth bared, and Hiccup held up his hands.

 

"Astrid, no! He's hurt!"

 

"Good!" She was going to solve all the problems Hiccup had been worrying over with one quick swing of her ax. Hiccup knew he should just let her. She'd even be a hero for it.

 

"You can't kill a prisoner like that!" Hiccup yelled it loud enough to make his bruised side ache. He should have let her finish Dagur off, but he couldn't. Not yet.

 

"Prisoner?" Astrid stopped at that, she looked over Dagur and then back to Hiccup, eyes narrowed and questioning. Hiccup didn't have to hear her ask how that was possible out loud.

 

"He has crimes to answer to on Berk. When we get back, if my dad says you can..." Hiccup trailed off and swallowed against the word. His voice was faltering now, no longer the loud yell he managed before, he was barely talking at the same pitch he usually did. "Then you can. But not now. Not here."

 

Astrid was still for a moment, probably weighing if she should just ignore him and kill Dagur now to just take his head back to Berk, but she lowered her ax and Hiccup let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding. The rest of the academy wasn't far behind Astrid. Hookfang landed, then Barf and Belch, and Meatlug was still a bit away when Snotlout and the twins came closer.

 

"Is that Dagur?" Snotlout asked when he was close enough to see the berserker.

 

"Yeah, it is. We're taking him back to Berk, and that's it right now," Hiccup said. Getting Dagur to Berk was going to be enough of a challenge, he didn't want to deal with too many steps that could go wrong. Hiccup saw what was going to happen just a moment before it did, Snotlout was too close and smirking and he had started to swing his leg back to kick Dagur. "Don't--!"

 

Everything went too fast, especially Dagur who looked like he shouldn't have been able to move let alone move that quickly. As soon as Snotlout's boot had hit Dagur's shoulder--maybe the berserker had used whatever pain that came from his broken arm being jarred to set him off--the older boy was twisted over and his good hand was jerking the dagger out of Snotlout's boot. Hiccup wasn't sure how he even knew it was there. There was the dull shine of iron and then a sudden crack. It took Hiccup a moment to even figure out what had happened. Astrid was in Snotlout's place, her ax close to Dagur's throat, staring him down. She had seen the same thing Hiccup had and went for a more direct approach, shoving Snotlout out of the way as she kicked the dagger from the berserker's hand. Snotlout's dagger was somewhere in the seaweed and probably lost for good but since Dagur was still frozen in place and glaring at the warrior who stole his kill he probably didn't care about that.

 

"Hiccup said you can't kill me," Dagur's voice was strained, he was trying to sound fine but he was failing worse than ever.

 

"Hiccup said I couldn't kill a helpless prisoner on the ground. The _moment_ you're a threat I can do whatever I want," Astrid spat it at him and looked over Dagur, then pulled back with a glare. "Not that you're going to be a threat when people stop being stupid."

 

Dagur bared his teeth and Hiccup could nearly hear them grinding together at that. Apparently that was the worst thing you could call a berserker. He'd have to remember that for later.

 

"Someone needs to take Toothless and let me ride their dragon back to Berk so I can bring Dagur in. I lost my foot and I can't help him fly like this," Hiccup said as he looked over to the twins and Fishlegs. During the scuffle the large boy had joined them with Meatlug coming right behind him.

 

"Oh, us!" Tuff was the first to jump on the chance to ride Toothless with his sister against his side and looking just as excited.

 

"Uh, no?" Hiccup just rolled his eyes at the twins. "Toothless doesn't need two riders, just one."

 

"Oh. Then just me!" Tuff shoved Ruff away from him and grinned, excited and eager.

 

"No, it's me!" In a moment Ruff was on him, slamming an elbow into her brother's gut and sending him to the ground. The twins started having a typical fight after that, punching and biting and kicking at each other with the reason for why they were fighting lost to both.

 

Hiccup rubbed his hand over his face with a sigh and looked to Fishlegs, "So can I borrow Meatlug?"

 

"I don't think that's a good idea," Fishlegs cringed and reached to wrap his arms around Meatlug's thick neck to hug her close. "Meatlug's already stressed and I don't want her having to deal with. Well. Him."

 

"I know that," Hiccup said. "But Meatlug's the calmest dragon here, and the smoothest ride so we won't fall off, and she's the one with the toughest scales. Even if Dagur tries anything like this he won't be able to hurt her. Besides, you've flown Toothless before, you know how."

 

Hiccup glanced back to Dagur as he spoke. If it was anything like when he had thrown Hiccup's shield at him before then Dagur was going to be even more pathetic after this sudden burst of movement. It seemed like the berserker could only do that right now, lie there and do nothing and when he finally saved up some amount of strength he just suddenly let it out like a bolt of lightning. The former chief already looked awful, like he was fighting against passing out. He probably was.

 

Nobody seemed convinced and Hiccup sighed, "And this way Astrid can fly behind us. If Dagur does anything she can take him out, you know she has the best aim out of any of us."

 

"With an ax?" Fishlegs was more horrified that Astrid may possibly fling her weapon towards Meatlug and held his dragon tighter.

 

"Here, with this," Hiccup reached into his boot and took out his dagger, tossing it up to Astrid. After Dagur's stunt with Snotlout he actually felt better without it. Astrid caught it easily--without even looking at it--and nodded.

 

"A dagger isn't going to do much to Meatlug, right?" she asked as she stuck the small weapon into her belt. "But if Dagur does anything it's going into the back of his neck."

 

There was a little more arguing. Why should they bother taking Dagur, why was Fishlegs the one who got to fly Toothless, but eventually they were ready to go and Astrid helped Hiccup up so he could get onto Meatlug. She was more hesitant about helping Dagur, and Hiccup eventually just had the twins haul Dagur up under each arm and get him up onto the Gronkle behind Hiccup and braced against his shield. Dagur was panting between his teeth when he was finally settled behind the smaller boy, the twins hadn't been gentle at all and he had been jerked around when they got him up. But he was up now and they could go, and on Hiccup's signal the five dragons took up into the air. The trip back wasn't quite as bad, if only because Hiccup could yell and tell Fishlegs about the dragon they had just left behind and what he knew about it instead of thinking about the berserker slumped against his shield that he'd have to deal with when they landed.


	13. Chapter 13

"Have you gone to see him yet?"

 

"No."

 

"You probably should."

 

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Hiccup sighed and shifted in his seat, leaning closer to the Book of Dragons as he drew the illustration for the massive dragon he had just encountered in it. There wasn't much to draw, just the way the dragon had looked as an island, all weird and oval-shaped with a funny little place where the head was out of the water some away from its body. There was the way the head and neck rose out of the body, too, but he hadn't gotten to that yet. It seemed a little more worthwhile to put effort into how the seaweed had looked on it in case someone else encountered it.

 

Astrid didn't leave when he acted like that, though. He should have known that, she didn't give up easy on anything. Ever. Hiccup pushed the book away, still open for the ink to have a chance to dry, and looked up to her. "I don't know what going to see him is going to do. He's here, my dad's furious, that's kind of the end of the story. Besides, he's not even awake yet, is he?"

 

"He is sometimes," Astrid sighed and reaches up to brush her bangs out of her face, and they fell right back where they had been before. "He's pretty out of it when he's up."

 

"Violent out of it or pitiful out of it?"

 

"Sometimes one, sometimes the other. Sometimes he just lays there like he's dead."

 

"And what am I supposed to do? Do you think he actually _wants_ to see me?" Hiccup asked, he felt worse the more Astrid talked about how Dagur was doing.

 

"No, but you could tell Gothi how he was before he got here, that might help her heal him. You're the one who wanted him as a prisoner. He's probably going to be executed but he has to be able to stand on his own two feet for the sentence."

 

Hiccup buried his face in his hands with a groan, "Do we have to kill him? He's barely older than you or me."

 

"He tried to _kill_ _you_." The worst part was Hiccup knew she was right. About all of it. He couldn't just hide away like this and pretend there wasn't a psycho on the island because of him even though he wanted to so badly. He had to deal with it and the sooner the better.

 

"What do you think will happen if he does die from sickness?" Hiccup asked, still hiding in his hands.

 

There was a long pause as Astrid thought before she finally answered, "That might be better for everyone."

 

Hiccup nodded into his hands and pushed himself up off of his chair. His new foot was in theory the same as the one he lost, Gobber hadn't tweaked much from the original design other than to give the base a bit more length since Hiccup had grown some while he had the first one. It was either that little bit of length--which was doubtful since it wasn't even half an inch--or just the fact that it was new that was throwing him off. He'd adjust in time, but at the moment he was moving a little more awkwardly and hesitantly than he had with the other. Hiccup jerked when Astrid reached for him, but she was just pulling him close into a hug and he leaned into it and hugged her back. That was at least one thing that was nice about Astrid being right about everything. Killing Dagur might have been an easy decision for her but she knew it wasn't for him, and she wasn't trying to make fun of him for that.

 

"It's different when he's not actually doing anything. When he's attacking me, or Berk, or dragons I can hate him, but when he's just lying there I can't..." Hiccup trailed off, not sure how he should end it. He can't just decide to kill him? He can't hate him? Why shouldn't he hate Dagur? He was awful. Everything about him was awful.

 

Astrid pulled back and patted his shoulder. She gave him a smile that was probably supposed to be reassuring but it just seemed as confused as he was. With a pang of guilt Hiccup thought she was probably just confused as to why he wasn't the first one to yell for Dagur's head on a pike. She didn't say that, though. All she said was "Do you want me to go up with you?"

 

Hiccup shook his head and tried to smile back at her, "Nah. I'll be fine, pretty sure I could handle myself if he tries to do anything."

 

Astrid still walked with him out of his hut. They didn't say much after that, neither one really knew what to say. It was too soon and not soon enough when Hiccup was climbing onto Toothless. The silence had been uncomfortable but the prospect of flying up to the old hut Dagur was being kept in was worse. Gothi wasn't expected to keep Dagur in her hut since nobody wanted to leave her in that isolated an area with that crazy of a kid. But nobody wanted Dagur to be near the village where he might gain some strength and start causing havoc. Mildew was still with the Outcasts and his hut was still abandoned so it had seemed like the perfect solution to stick the young berserker there until he was either healed or dead.

 

When Hiccup landed it he felt like it was just too soon for him to be in front of the hut, as if to make him miserable something had shortened the distance of his path just so he wouldn't be able to be in the air and away from his duties for as long. But he still got off of his dragon and rubbed Toothless' head as Hiccup left him to nose around in the overgrown field while the dragon rider was inside of the hut. It was fairly dark and cold inside, a fire hadn't been kindled in the pit and it looked as if nobody had been there all day. So when a voice suddenly rang out too loud and healthy to be Dagur's Hiccup jumped.

 

"Finally! I thought I'd be here forever." A great hulking form rose up in the shadows. It took Hiccup a moment to see through the dim after coming in from outside, but he relaxed some when he saw Snotlout's father coming toward him. Spitelout was a lot of things, and most of them weren't good, but he didn't hate Hiccup or want to hurt him.

 

"Yeah, hey, how is he--" the wind was knocked out of Hiccup when Spitelout shoved something into his arms and hit his belly too hard. Hiccup looked down at the short sword he had been forcibly given, "What? Wait, no, I'm not--"

 

"Ye'll be fine, he hasn't moved an inch," Spitelout said as he walked past Hiccup's tiny frame in the doorway. Spitelout patted the small viking's back and Hiccup felt like the wind was knocked out of him again. Before he could find his voice the man was already out the door and gone.

 

"I'm not here to guard him..." Hiccup finished it anyway like that might bring the burly man back. It didn't, he was still alone with Dagur in the hut. He looked over to the bed and where Dagur was laying on it. It was probably fine, the way Dagur looked he didn't need a guard. And if he did get up and move, Hiccup was faster and healthier and he had a sword. Even after telling himself that Hiccup wasn't sure and when he moved closer to the bed he held the sword tighter. Dagur didn't move, he seemed asleep, obviously not responding. The fur over him shifted and Hiccup held the sword up over his head, ready to bring it down if he had to.

 

But Dagur still wasn't moving. At least his head and shoulders didn't seem to be. The lump under the covers shifted and settled back down. With a deep breath Hiccup took a hand off of the sword to reach and tug the blanket down, and he let the cloth go with a relieved sigh. It was just a Terrible Terror, a little mud-brown one hunkered under the fur and against Dagur's side. If a dragon was there and fine the berserker definitely wasn't awake. It was weird that the Terror was there at all, though. Hiccup frowned when he thought of something and reached to touch the side of Dagur's throat, nearly jerking back like he had just touched fire. Dagur was burning up. It had nearly been two days since they got back, at least his fever should have broken by now! That's why the Terror was there, he was attracted to the only source of heat in the hut.

 

Hiccup looked around. That was probably why there wasn't a fire in the hut, so it wouldn’t risk making Dagur overheat worse, but he didn't want the Terror using Dagur like that. He didn't know if the little dragon could get sick off the same thing that was infecting the berserker, and he didn't want Dagur to wake up and decide he hated the Terror and was going to hurt him. So Hiccup went to start a fire, hoping it would lure the little dragon out to settle there instead. And because it was better to do something like that than to have to deal with Dagur just yet.


	14. Chapter 14

It took a couple minutes after the fire was burning for the Terror to come out from under the covers and investigate the light. Hiccup rubbed over the little scaled side until the dragon settled down on the edge of the pit and seemed ready to resume his nap there instead of with Dagur. That was one problem solved, at least. Hiccup wasn't sure if Spitelout just hadn't noticed the little dragon cuddled up against the prisoner or if he hadn't cared.

 

"What're you doing?"

 

Alright, that time it was Dagur's voice. Rough and weak and pitiful and sick. Hiccup looked back at him, still rubbing over the little dragon and glad it had moved before Dagur woke up, "I started a fire. It's cold in here and the Terrors like to sleep around heat."

 

"I know..." Dagur seemed to be trying to sit up and then he either thought better of it or gave up before he settled back down with a grunt. "They've been sleeping on top of me."

 

"You knew about that?"

 

"That one," Dagur reached up with his good arm--but even that one he didn't seem to have the best control over-- to point at the Terror, "Stepped on my arm when it was getting off of me."

 

Hiccup winced in sympathy and stood up. He grabbed the sword as he came over and sat on the chair near the bed and facing it, where he was assuming the guards had been sitting before. "Well, I didn't hear you scream. So are you feeling better?"

 

"I don't know," Dagur answered and closed his eyes. For a moment Hiccup wasn't sure if he was going to go back to sleep but then Dagur was talking again, "Maybe. My arm's been set. I don't feel like I need to throw up anymore."

 

"That's good. I've seen you puke once, don't need to see it again," Hiccup looked down at the sword in his hands and just sort of rubbed his fingers against the hilt so he didn't have to look at Dagur. There was a silence again, and it made Hiccup miss the awkward one he had with Astrid before. When Dagur did finally say something it was the last thing in the world Hiccup ever expected to hear.

 

"Skrill are head shy."

 

"What?" Hiccup looked at him, just confused and assuming that this was what Astrid meant when she said that he was out of it.

 

"Skrill are head shy. You can't touch their faces. They'll shock you."

 

Hiccup just stared at him. It was... _possible_ that it was true. Dagur had controlled the Skrill before, and if berserkers were able to control those dragons once a long time ago that knowledge might have been passed down.

 

"Why are you telling me this?" Hiccup asked, looking over Dagur's face carefully.

 

"You care about dragons and I don't want to die," Dagur looked up at him and Hiccup gripped the sword tighter on reflex.

 

"That can't be information you can just give out to anyone."

 

"It's not," Dagur looked from Hiccup to somewhere behind him. Hiccup glanced over his shoulder and to the lit firepit where a few more Terrors were settling in, a blue one trying to push aside the brown. The newcomer was probably convinced the first had picked the best spot by the fire and didn't deserve it.

 

"But I was kicked out of my tribe," Dagur continued, and when Hiccup looked back the older boy was looking at him again. "You want to know about dragons. I know more about the Skrill than anyone else. You let me live and I'll tell you about it."

 

That... really didn't make things easier. At all. Hiccup might have been able to train a Skrill without the information but the chance to find another Skrill was slim to none. But then he'd have to convince his father to let Dagur stay alive to give them what knowledge he had. ...If he wasn't bluffing.

 

"Most dragons don't let you touch their faces right away, they have to trust you so--"

 

"No," it was soft and quiet and Hiccup was almost embarrassed about how fast it made him shut up. "Even if you can pet them, their throats or their bellies, they don't ever let you touch their heads."

 

"Some dragons don't even let you touch their stomachs," Hiccup said. He wasn't sure if he was trying to argue with Dagur or not, but if he was it didn't work. The berserker just closed his eyes again and looked like he was going to go to sleep. Hiccup hesitated, he played with the sword in his hands, and eventually he sighed and set it aside. He got up to drag the chair closer to the bed and reached to touch Dagur's forehead, just to feel how bad he was again. Green eyes dull with pain looked up at him again and Hiccup had to force himself not to put his hand over Dagur's eyes the way he had on the island.

 

"Alright," Hiccup tried hard not to think about how he'd have to back up the decision. "As long as you tell me about the Skrill you can live. But it has to be the truth."

 

"How will you know I'm not lying?" Dagur grinned a little up at him, crooked and cocky even like this.

 

"I'll know," Hiccup said. The dragon rider tried to force as much authority into his voice as he could. It might have worked, Dagur lost his grin and then he just nodded under Hiccup's hand. Alright. He could do this. He could handle Dagur. He could--

 

There was a clatter as the door swung open behind him and Hiccup jerked his hand off of Dagur's head like he was a Fireworm. He looked back, eyes wide and scared because of what he had just promised and who might have heard it. Gothi looked back to him, walking slowly with the help of her staff, a bundle of wrapped cloth in her other arm. She didn't seem surprised to see him, although she never seemed surprised to see anything. Hiccup had grown up assuming that the old woman knew everything, sometimes even before it happened. So far there hadn't been anything to ever prove that assumption wrong.

 

"I wasn't--I can go, I was just--" Hiccup stuttered. Gothi held up a hand, palm toward him, and Hiccup stopped trying to talk. As soon as he was quiet she seemed satisfied and waved toward Dagur like she was shooing away a fly as she turned to the firepit. She wasn't surprised at that, either. She actually seemed to have expected it since she was pulling over a pot and filling it with water, then opened the bundle of cloth she had with her to start breaking apart the herbs and leaves and roots and tossing them in. Hiccup looked back to Dagur hesitantly. He had the feeling that he was somewhere he shouldn't have been but that he couldn't leave without making it weirder. Dagur didn't seem to be any better experienced at the situation and looked up to Hiccup with a questioning look. That actually make the viking runt feel better, at least he wasn't the only one not sure about what was going on.

 

"Hey? Spitelout was here before, but he thought I was taking over guard duty. I can find someone else to..." at first Gothi had seemed like she was coming closer to listen to him, but when she was beside him she just took Hiccup's hand and put something into it. Hiccup looked down at the grass and the pungent smell hit him, soothing and familiar, but not really useful right now.

 

"Uh, thanks? I mean, I can get dragon nip for Toothless in the wilderness, but--"Hiccup was cut off when one of the Terrors came from the firepit and crammed into his lap, squirming and shoving her face into the bundle of grass. She was wiggling and overexcited at the treat and she nearly fell off of Hiccup's lap. He had to jerk to grab her and scoop her up close to the bed so she didn't fall to the floor.

 

"Hey there, girl. Looks like you might have a little nip problem," Hiccup laughed a little awkwardly and got the Terror up onto his lap. She was starting to settle now, making the little buzzy purrs that were typical of the tiny dragons when they were happy. He looked to Gothi and she just smiled and patted his elbow as she went back to the pot of water and plants to get it up over the fire. Hiccup looked down at the Terror again, rubbing over her side, before he glanced to Dagur. He didn't seem upset, just confused and a little curious, and with the relaxed and happy dragon in his lap and Dagur weak enough to not even be able to sit up Hiccup took a chance, "Do you want to pet her?"

 

Dagur's eyebrows went together, like he was trying to figure out what that meant. Hiccup didn't give him a chance to think about it too hard. He reached for Dagur's good arm and tugged his wrist out from under the fur, putting his hand carefully on the little dragon's side.

 

"Just be gentle and rub. You can even feel her purring like this," Hiccup smiled down at the Terror. He was still holding Dagur's hand, more to shove him away in case he tried to hurt her than to keep him touching, but eventually the bigger boy's fingers started sliding over the small scales slowly. Carefully Hiccup let go of Dagur's hand, and he almost laughed in relief when all Dagur did was keep petting the little dragon.

 

Maybe Dagur could teach him about the Skrill. And maybe Hiccup could teach him about everything else.


End file.
